According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, private consumption has shrunk by 44% • A 30% drop in property investments • Imports have fallen by 28% due to a halt in tourism
Closed restaurant in Tel Aviv // Photo: Yehoshua Yosef
Worrying data:
Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 28.8% on an annual basis, according to a summary of the estimates of the national accounts for the second quarter of the year published by the CBS.
In the second quarter of the year, there was a decrease of about 35% in business GDP, a decrease of 44% in private consumption expenditure, a decrease of 30% in investments in fixed assets, a decrease of 28% in exports of goods and services, a decrease of 40% in imports of goods and services. Of 26% in public consumption expenditure. The CBS indicates the reliability limitations of the data, because they are "seasonally adjusted" and may be affected differently than usual in a crisis.
"Currently, there are not enough data relating to the period of the crisis, which make it possible to calculate more correct seasonal effects," the CBS said.
Quarterly calculation is a decrease in growth of 8.1% - a decrease of 6.7% on an annual basis, following a decrease of 1.7% in the first quarter of the year, which in fact included only half a month of the beginning of the crisis in March.
Business GDP (GDP after tax on products) decreased in the second quarter of the year by 34.8%, after a decrease of 2.7% in the first quarter. The sharp decline in business output reflects declines in GDP in the financial services, insurance, real estate and other industries by 45.4%. In an annual calculation.
The branches that remained stable
The product of the construction industry is a decrease of 29% in annual calculation, the product of the trade and hospitality and food services industry is a decrease of 40.3% in annual calculation, the product of transportation, storage, mail and courier industry - a decrease of 53% in annual calculation and the product of manufacturing is 26.2% in calculation annual.
In contrast, GDP in the information and communications industries remained stable, with 0.4% on an annualized basis.
In the first half of the year, business output decreased by 10.4% compared to the first half of 2019.
Imports of goods and services decreased in the second quarter of the year by 39.5% on an annualized basis and by 11.8% on a quarterly basis.
This is after a decrease of 18.6% in the previous quarter.
This sharp decline reflects, among other things, the halting of tourism leaving Israel (which, like imports, is in fact the purchase of services from abroad by Israelis), as well as a significant decline in imports of other services, which fell by 22.7% on an annual basis.
Private consumption expenditure, which was most significantly affected by the corona crisis, fell by 44% in the second quarter of the year on an annualized basis and by 13.5% on a quarterly basis.
Thus, in the first half of the year, private consumption decreased by 22.5% on an annualized basis and by 11.9% on a half-yearly basis, compared with the second half of 2019.